


April 11th.

by caffeinatednightowl, Mirror_Verse



Series: Mirror-Verse [45]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Angst, Confessions, Flashbacks, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 23:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caffeinatednightowl/pseuds/caffeinatednightowl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirror_Verse/pseuds/Mirror_Verse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel tells some family history to Dean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	April 11th.

The bell chimed as Gabriel walked into the Celestial Café. It was near the end of the night and the crowd was thinning out, but Gabe could still see his brother shuffling behind the counter, attempting to fill some hipster’s complicated order. (What even was a marble half-caf double-double soy mint chocolate mocha-latte?)

Cas didn’t even notice him until he strode up to the counter, smiling, “Hey, Cassie.”

Cas popped up from beneath the counter, taking a rag to some spilled sugar, “Oh, hi Gabriel. What are you doing here?”

Gabriel smiled, “What, I can’t check on my brother every once in a while?”

Cas stared at him, seemingly regarding that comment with suspicion. “You want anything?”

Gabriel grinned, “My usual, of course.”

“Of course.”

A few minutes and a caramel latte later, Gabriel sat at a small table in the back of the café, watching his brother. Castiel shuffled around the counter, working hard, but Gabriel could see that small sadness in his eyes—the way he just went through the motions, trying to get by.

Gabriel knew it because he had done the same thing today, too.

His musings were interrupted when the bell chimed and a familiar voice called out, “Hey, Cas!” Gabriel turned to see Dean Winchester coming through the door, huge smile on his face. For all Castiel’s forced stoicness earlier, he did perk up when he saw him.

“Hello Dean,” Cas said, leaning over the counter at his friend. “Sorry, I’ll be about ten minutes late—“

“It’s fine,” said Dean, giving Cas that grin that Gabe new was reserved for only him. “It’s not like I left Baby running or anything.”

Cas nodded, then went back to cleaning up. Dean, still smiling, turned to go find a seat—when he caught Gabe’s eye.

“Hey, Dean-o!” Gabriel waved, taking a swing of his coffee. “Fancy seeing you here!”

Dean glared as he marched over to Gabriel, hands in his pockets. “What are you doing here?” he almost growled, folding his arms in disapproval.

Gabriel shrugged. “Can’t I go visit my adorable little brother at work?”

“Yeah, and what are you planning on doing, mixing up the sugar and cinnamon in the shakers?”

“I wouldn’t prank him at work, Dean-o, that’s just cruel.”

Dean scoffed, glancing back at Cas. Castiel was busy currently cleaning out one of the coffee machines, so Dean rolled his eyes at Gabriel before taking a seat at the table. “Whatever. Why are you here anyway?”

Gabriel took a sip of his coffee, officially done with the accusations. Cas’s Not-Boyfriend or not, there was still family business Dean had to respect. “I told you; I came to make sure Cas was doing okay today—he looked a little moody before you came in.”

“Why the Hell would you wanna check up on him today? You saw him just days ago, man. Cas isn’t a baby.”

Gabriel had been ignoring Dean’s rants—he was used to the older Winchester’s protectiveness surrounding his brother—but paused just before taking a sip of coffee. Maybe… Gabriel set the cup down on the table. “Do you know what day it is, Dean?”

Dean glanced up for a moment in thought. “April 11th?”

Guess not. “Dean,” sighed Gabriel. “It’s the day our parents died.”

Dean froze, eyes wide and staring, as if he kept wishing Gabe would admit to a joke. Despite his penchant for pranks, he was never more serious. It was years ago but Gabriel could still remember when Balthazar answered the phone, and the crushed look on his brother’s face as he turned back to him. Dean swallowed, seeming to accept it, and glanced back at Cas. As usual, Cas was diligent in cleaning the counter, but the smile from earlier had vanished.

“I didn’t realize it was today,” mumbled Dean, sliding down in his chair, probably feeling like a bit of an asshole.

Good.

“I’m surprised Cas didn’t mention it.” Those two were close. If Cas would talk about it to anybody, it would be the guy he had the big gay crush on.

“Well, he talked about it,” Dean rested his chin in his hand, staring at the tabletop and tracing patterns on the wood. “But not much. He didn’t mention the date.”

“Cas doesn’t like to talk about it with us, either,” Gabriel said, glancing a look back at Cas. Though he wasn’t the best brother out there, he could at least be there for Cas, if Cas would let him.

“Why not?” Dean’s eyes met his own. Though the idea of talking about this with someone who wasn’t exactly family made a lump form in Gabriel’s throat, he knew Dean had to understand.

If he was going to trust his little brother’s heart to him, then he had to know about it.

“The accident happened the first year after Cas moved out,” Gabe explained. “He had come down here for college and was living on his own—I was the one who had to call him. I don’t—I don’t think Cassie ever forgave himself that he wasn’t home when it happened.” If he tried to recall it, he could still hear it in his head—their conversation that night,

_“Cassie—something’s happened…” Gabriel said, trying to keep the tears at bay for a moment._

_“What—what happened?” Cas could hear it in his voice and he was panicking—but Gabe knew nothing could prepare his little brother for it._

_“There—there was an accident—drunk driver—Mom and Dad—“_

_“Oh my god! Are they in the hospital? Are they gonna be okay? Hang on, I’ll get a bus—I’ll get up there right now—”_

_“Castiel…”_

_“What?”_

_“They’re…” He couldn’t help the choked sob. “They’re gone, Cas.”_

_Silence. “…Cassie?”_

_“Oh_ God!” _Cas screamed. And Gabe stopped holding back, allowing the dam to burst and crying with him, wishing more than ever Cas was here so he could hug his little brother and try to make it right._

Of course, things were never right again. But they did their best. Their family had gotten smaller, but somehow it had made them all closer.

“Why could Cas beat himself up about that?” Dean stared, though it was more of a concerned stare now.

Gabriel took another sip of his coffee, so Dean wouldn’t see the way he had to swallow the lump in his throat down again. “Didn’t your Dad die recently too, Dean?”

“Yeah, when I was eighteen, but—”

“And did you have a good relationship with him before he died?”

Now Dean started to get it—understanding lit up his green eyes, and he quickly glanced away for a short moment—it was all Gabriel needed to confirm it.

“Then maybe you can understand. Our parents were…” Gabriel licked his lip for a moment, trying to find the right word. “…hard to please.”

“Bible thumpers, Cas said.”

Gabriel shrugged; he wasn’t gonna make any excuses there. “They grew up with beliefs. They tried to pass them on, but not much stuck—they weren’t too thrilled with that.”

Dean snorted. “If your parents were so hardcore, then how did they put up with you and Balthazar being…the way you are? Did they even know?”

“Oh they knew, and they probably weren’t cool with it, but they didn’t think it was worth tearing the family apart over. They did love us, Dean.”

“Then why are you goin’ on about Cas having a bad relationship with them?”

 “Look, if he didn’t tell you, then I’m not sure I—”

“C’mon man,” Dean looked at him, his green eyes wide and curious. “Tell me.”

Gabriel sighed. If Castiel gave him any Hell over this, it was totally Dean’s fault. “Look, until you came along, I was the one to look out for Cassie, all right? He’s the closest to me in age and—”

“You guys are what, not even separated by a year, right?” said Dean, attempting to count the months on his fingers.

“It’s what happens when your parents believe any form of birth control is evil,” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “But you have a little brother too, right? You know what it’s like. And growing up, Cas was always…quiet. He was the youngest of the five of us, until Samandriel came along. Sure we picked on him; it’s what brothers do, but—I don’t think it was just that. What I remember most about him was when he was younger, he was always up in his room, drawing. It’s what he liked the most out of everything.”

Gabriel drummed his fingertips on his almost-empty coffee cup. “But with our parents—they wanted us all to have a plan. Wanted to know where you wanted to go and what you wanted to do by the time you entered high school. I don’t really blame them, I guess…it was their way of looking out for us, making sure we had a job in mind that would pay off, but…well, imagine what it was like when I told them I wanted to bake cupcakes for a living,” smirked Gabriel.

“Not well, huh?”

“They stopped enrolling me in cooking classes at the Y,” Gabe frowned at the memory—he  _liked_  those classes. There had been a girl there who had sat in front of him with a  _very_  nice ass… “It was the same for Castiel. He told them he wanted to be an artist and they scoffed at him and told him to get a real dream.”

Dean cringed, taking a glance back at Cas, who was finishing up cleaning the counter and shutting down for the night. Gabe shared the sentiment—telling Castiel to stop drawing was about the same as punching the guy in the face. “So, Cas moved out to go to art school as one last ‘fuck you’, then?”

“Actually, I told him to,” Gabriel smiled, looking back at his little brother. “He wanted to go to art school—it had always been  his dream. But he was afraid of what they would think. I told him that our parents could go suck it. I was going to cooking school and was going to bake cupcakes for a living no matter what they thought. Parents mean well, but sometimes, they can really be great big bags of dicks.”

Dean snorted, but with that little tilt of his head, Gabe figured he knew exactly what he had been talking about. “So that brings us back to today. I don’t think he ever really forgave himself for that rebellion after they died.”

Dean looked back at Cas, empathy written all over his face. Yep, Dean knew exactly what that felt like. Though Dean Winchester was fun to annoy, Gabe had to admit that if there was anyone perfect enough for his brother, it was probably him. “You know, Dean,” Gabriel mused, “Castiel never really smiled much until he met you.”

Dean glanced back at him, looking like he wasn’t sure if Gabriel was telling the truth of lying. Gabriel shrugged back; what reason would he have to lie about it? Lying now wouldn’t suit his purposes, not when—

“Dean?” asked Cas, having emerged from the back room with his coat and book bag.

“Yeah, I’m coming!” Dean sprang up from his seat, grabbing his keys without even a wave goodbye to Gabriel. But Gabriel didn’t mind. He watched Dean go over to his little brother, smiling as Cas apologized and Dean assuring him not to worry about it.

“He’s not the only one who seems to have smiled more, eh, Dean?” Gabriel smirked to himself, before tossing out his coffee and leaving the café. 


End file.
